Central Florida Gets 1st Crack At Wireless Communicator

Wires not included

Simon says: Wireless computing is considered a huge growth market by the country's major telecommunications and computer companies.

Simon is a hand-held cellular phone with a built-in fax machine and a computerized notebook that can send electronic mail.

On Tuesday, IBM and BellSouth Corp. announced that the 18-ounce device will be sold starting in December in four Florida cities: Orlando, Daytona Beach, Melbourne and Jacksonville.

But the companies plan for sales to spread nationwide by March or April.

It will sell for $899.

''For the first time in the history of communications, customers will be able to hold all their communications tools literally in the palms of their hands,'' BellSouth Vice President Jim Thorpe told the Wireless World convention at the Buena Vista Palace in Lake Buena Vista.

Simon is not the first ''personal digital assistant'' or ''personal communicator'' to debut this year. Apple recently began selling its Newton Messagepad, while AT&T has a device known as Eo.

Thorpe, however, based his boast on the fact that Newton does not come with a built-in cellular phone, while Eo is too large to fit in a pocket or small purse.

Together, the tiny electronic boxes are one of the first milestones on the road to convergence of the telephone, computing and television industries.

Earlier this year AT&T, the nation's biggest long-distance company, acquired McCaw Cellular Communications, the country's No. 1 wireless company, in the fifth-largest merger in U.S. history.

Last month Bell Atlantic, one of the ''Baby Bell'' phone companies, bought Tele-Communications Inc., the nation's largest cable-TV company, in what could turn out to be first- or second-largest U.S. merger.

''The ultimate objective is not to be left standing when the music stops,'' BellSouth Chief Executive Officer John L. Clendenin told those attending the conference. ''We're not going to stay on the sidelines.''

BellSouth Cellular serves more than 1.7 million customers in 15 states, including Florida. Simon will do most of it communicating through that system, though it also will use BellSouth's MobileComm paging service to receive messages.

Simon is operated by touching its liquid-crystal display with a finger or metal stylus. It also can send faxes written on the screen using the stylus.

Clendenin said Simon will help meet BellSouth customers' demand for ''more choices . . . more mobility and more convergence.''

IBM, which developed Simon for BellSouth, is planning to market its own line of personal digital assistants sometime next year.

Clendenin's advice for winning in the ever-shifting electronic marketplace: ''Focus on the customer. Not the technology per se, but the customer.''